Fiji PM, Cabinet taken hostagePresident declares emergencySUVA, May 19 —Fiji’s President today declared a state of emergency in the South Pacific nation after a businessman took the Prime Minister hostage and claimed power in the name of indigenous Fijians.

(Left)
A building burns in Suva, Fiji, on Friday in this image made from
television and (Right) men, women and children rummage through goods from shops, after a group of armed civilians
stormed the Parliament and seized Fiji's ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his cabinet
colleagues. — AFP photo

India expresses
concernNEW DELHI, May 19 — India today expressed dismay and regret at the attempted coup d’ etat in Fiji and demanded immediate restoration of the legitimately elected government led by Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Pal
Chaudhry.

LTTE shells seaportDamage to airbase denied
LONDON, May 19 — Tamil Tiger rebels today mounted fresh attacks on the Army in northern Jaffna and shelled a key sea port at the northern tip of the peninsula.

Bid
to blow up J-K AssemblySRINAGAR, May 19 —
Militants made an abortive bid today to blow up the heavily-guarded
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly building here with a rocket, official sources
said.

Bindra to get BCCI notice
NEW DELHI, May 19 — Meeting in the backdrop of the match-fixing controversy, the working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today decided to issue a show-cause notice to former board president I.S. Bindra for levelling a string of corruption allegations against the apex body and its officials.

N.K. Jain
suspendedCHANDIGARH, May 19 — The Haryana Government has suspended former Chandigarh Home Secretary N.K. Jain on his return to his parent cadre. The Union Home Ministry had ordered his repatriation on May 17, a day before his extended police remand in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act registered by the Special cell of the CBI against him on April 6 expired.

CBI
takes Jain’s share certificatesCHANDIGARH,May
19 — The team of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the defence
counsel of Home Secretary N.K. Jain came to the court of the Chief
Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash, today morning, as directed by the
court yesterday.

Dawood
aide among five heldContract killers’ gang unearthedPHAGWARA, May 19 — Parvez
Khan, alias Tanda, a member of the Dubai-based Dawood Ibrahim gang, who
had allegedly killed Vicky Goswami, the main suspect in the murder of
music magnate Gulshan Kumar, was arrested by the Phagwara police along
with four of his accomplices and a large quantity of arms and ammunition
here today.